The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast S2 E9. Clippers beating Lakers, Western Conference standings, Warriors going back to back, East standings

Hey, what's up everybody? We're back.

It's the Rich Eisen Show basketball podcast. It's been a few weeks, but there's so much going on in the association as we hit the home stretch. Only a couple of games remain for all teams in the NBA as we get ready for the play-in tournament and then the big shebang, which the NBA playoffs, which is going to be so awesome. Cannot wait.

The guys are here. Adam, TJ, what's up? Great to be back.

It's the best time of the year. Let's go. What up though?

What up? TJ, what was that? The 400 straight win for the Clippers over the Lakers last night. I mean, it was just, you know, I was a little worried for a second, you know, because it's like Clippers have won 10 in the row.

And I, as I said on the big show yesterday, none of those 10 wins mean a damn if we lose this game tomorrow, which was last night, because that was the biggest game that the two have had because the playoff implications were so great. And then right before I left, I happened just to look at some stuff and I saw something that led me to realize that the Clippers were indeed, no matter what going to win that game. And that was that Mo Bamba was sitting out. And once I knew that Mo Bamba wouldn't be playing, I knew that it was just, it was easy work. It was light work for Kawhi and the Clippers.

And that's what happened 11, the road against the Lakers. And if you're only listening to the past version and not watching the YouTube, TJ has picked up his Kawhi Leonard fathead and is showing it to the camera. Gigantic what it do, baby, what to do, baby, do, baby, fun guy. You know what I thought was fun. Interesting too, is it by the way, Chris, I don't mean interrupt, but let me just say this.

And I was, that's a Hill, you know, we all have Hills. We're willing to die on, right? I'm going to die on is if you're going to be honest with yourself, you have to, I think admit that I'm right. There aren't five better players in the Western conference than Kawhi Leonard when he's playing and he's healthy when he's in his bag, his skillset is just such bro.

Like it is what it is. I agree with you, TJ, a hundred percent. You said in the West, I thought originally it was, and then he went to boil it down to he's not even top five in the West.

So that's ridiculous. Okay. So come on, man.

You got to give it up. The Kawhi Leonard's bag is just, it's unreal. Joker, Katie, Steph, LeBron, Dame crazy. No, you would not take Luca over Kawhi, bro. There's no way we'll go over Kawhi, not in the playoffs. No, my thing about Chris, he's not going to do it.

And that's why I argue with you guys. He's not going to do it on the defensive end period. No matter how much you like them, no matter how great you think he is, is offensively, he's never going to do it on the defense. Kawhi Leonard does what I think he is offensively.

It's what he is offensively as much as I love Luca. This guy's incredible. Kawhi was the number one guy on a championship team.

And well, yeah, technically I guess I could maybe say Parker Duncan, but yeah, he did win MVP, two MVPs and theory on two different squads. All right. That's all I'm going to say about that. It's all right.

I mean, Luca average is like 40 game of the playoffs. It's fine. Uh, okay. Okay. Thank you for ruining my train of thought because I was going somewhere before, before you interrupted me, TJ.

Well, I mean, I got to set the record straight, man. Okay. It's fine. The Kawhi is not even gonna make all NBA this year, so it doesn't matter.

That's fine. And Luke is going to be first team. I thought it was hilarious that the Lakers, it was a must win game for them, obviously, because they're still in the seven spot right now. And LeBron and Anthony Davis were questionable heading into the game. And then LeBron goes out and throws in like a minus 30 first half. He was so bad. Everyone on Twitter was like, well, broad should have just stayed home, cut this guy down. And then, you know, 30 of the second app, but it was too little shows you how dumb Twitter is.

It was too little, too late at that point. Uh, I just thought it was interesting. I still don't know what to make of this Laker team. I know they've gone from out and now they're they're a game back of the Warriors for for the six spot. I still think they're going to play in the play in. And I'm not convinced they're going to make it out, Adam. I just don't understand this Lakers team.

It's a it's such a you're right. It's such a weird team to follow because they do have two of the top 15 players in the league. And that's obviously incredibly important to go deep in the playoffs.

Superstars win playoff series. But there just seems to be a disconnect with this team where they're very inconsistent. They started off bad. They've been good since they made those trades for D'Angelo Russell and Vanderbilt and these guys.

Um, but I really don't know what to think about them right now. I would not want to play them in the playoffs. So I'll say that just because LeBron is desperate for a championship, even if he doesn't make a championship, he's desperate just to even go far in the playoffs at this point and see what what happens. So I don't think you want to play them in the playoffs. You want to play more of a team like I'd say, like, OK, see or the thunder or excuse me, the timber wolves or a team like that.

But with the level of experience that the Lakers have with A.D. and Bronn alone, I just don't know if I don't even want to play them. So two games left T.J. right now, seven, eight Lakers, Pelicans, winners of seven seed, nine, 10 T wolves Thunder. Thunder had the tiebreak over the Mavericks, who won last night with Luca going off. I mean, rumors they were going to shut down Luca and Kyrie. But then Mark Cuban said, as long as they're still in it, they're going to play. We'll see if they get in. I mean, I'm totally here for Lakers, Mavericks. The winner gets the eight seed to play the Nuggets.

I think that would that's kind of our best case scenario in terms of just pure entertainment value. Do we know if Zion's coming back? We heard an update on this. I haven't heard anything. I haven't heard anything other than he wasn't playing because there's a chance there's a chance the Pelicans who've won eight out of 10, by the way, quiet is kept room super quiet. Eight out of 10.

Just skating real quick. Yeah, they're the hottest team in the NBA currently with that winning run. They could get the seven seed and suddenly they play the Grizzlies and maybe some weird stuff happens and. You know, they move on to play the winner of Sacramento at Golden State.

I mean, come on. I think the playoffs are going to be so weird. I'm absolutely rooting for chaos in the West just because it's going to be the most fun. I want every series to go seven games.

I want weird stuff that's going to happen. I mean, why can't you know, whoever's the eight seed? Maybe it's why can't the Lakers knock off the Nuggets? They could. They absolutely could. There's 1000 percent they could. And then suddenly they play the Suns Clippers winner in the next round. TJ, like, come on, TJ, how bad would you want Lakers, Lakers playoffs?

Oh, my God. I mean, that would be incredible, right? That would be amazing.

The downtown Hoops dojo would be lit as rich likes to say, are we going to get to that point? Who knows? The best thing, like you said, is anything can happen. It's all wide open right now.

I don't really know what's going to go down, man. Like that game last night was so important, though. Yeah. Huge.

You know, and huge. Rich does. You know, Rich has his thing on their big show where he's very anti load management and players sitting out. But I'll give him that. You know, if you had your guys play a little more often than they do, the Clippers wouldn't have been in that position.

But it is what it is. I look, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. I know guys are coming off of significant injuries, even though there was a season or two ago. It just depends on how the human body heals. You know, these guys are first of all, human bodies aren't meant to be seven feet tall, I don't think. Right.

So it would make sense that people who are that big suffer these injuries that, you know, five foot tenants people don't suffer. So we're going to have to see. I'm so excited, though, man. It's always playoffs are going to be so good.

It's gonna be so good, Adam. It's always crazy to me that in Major League Baseball 162 games, it's so long. It's like a five month regular season. But still, with a week to go, these games matter so much like teams are one game separated for playoff standings. NBA just as long.

Eighty two games is such a long season to play basketball. There's two games left and these games matter so much in the West. Five, six tied Clippers and Warriors. Same record. Lakers, Pelicans, seven eight. Same record. T wolves, one game back. Thunder Mavericks tied.

Same record. I have not seen anything like this in all my years watching the NBA, where you have this many teams competing for this many positions at the end of the season. It's usually kind of locked in at this point. Five through eleven. How it is right now as we tape this at twelve thirty Pacific time on Thursday could not be how it is on Sunday when the regular season ends.

Five through eleven Clippers, Warriors, Lakers, Pelicans, T wolves, Thunder Mavericks. And I would say before no chance. That's how it is. No, there's no way. And I would say before you might want to lose on purpose to avoid the Suns, you want to avoid the Suns at all costs. But with how close the race is right now, if you lose a couple of games, you might not even make the playoffs or be the 10 seed. So you can't even afford to do that.

Right. But if you're the if you're the Clippers, if you're the Lakers, if you're the Warriors, you do not want to play the Suns in the first round. You have because they're so talented. And you want you're hoping that you avoid them in the first round. You have to play them in the second round. And you're just hoping for an injury from Chris Paul or Kevin Durant at that point, you know, they're injury prone. Obviously, you don't want to you want to play them at their best, but also like secretly, you want them to have an injury. That's really the only chance because the sons are looking great right now. And Kevin Durant's ramping up he's starting to become the Kevin Durant's of old you see that he's figuring it out with Booker and Chris Paul. So that team is a tough matchup at number four, even for the first seed. If you're number one seed, that means you have to play the four or five seed in the second round.

That's that's tough right there. Yeah, TJ is what we talked about last year with Philadelphia after they made the trade for James Harden. It's all they're only going to have 20 games together for the playoffs.

Is it enough time to gel and get to know one another and get that chemistry down? And now Phoenix, they make the huge move for Kevin Durant. And we had kind of had the same question. Then he has a fluke ankle injury and warm ups where he just slips on the court court and rolls the ankle, misses a couple of weeks. Now he's back.

Looks great. They've won six in a row. And are they still the most dangerous team, though, because they've only played what? Less than 10 games. Kevin Durant has played seven games as a member of the Phoenix Sun.

So and I'm glad you brought it up. That was my big thing with Harden in the Sixers last year. Like you said, twenty four games.

I didn't know if that was enough to truly mesh in jail and create a champion. Now you've got Durant at the most he's going to play this year is nine games, nine regular season games with this team at most. That is, if he plays their last two, I think you have two games left, right? Everyone's got to go. So actually, Phoenix has three left three.

OK, so he can play 10, which will probably sit out one of those. I just don't know for as great offensively as you know, this team is, if that's enough time for this team to to mesh in jail and to a championship squad. But then you have to look at this team, you know, twenty twenty.

You know, they kind of. Kind of made their mark right in the bubble, you know, kind of Devon Booker kind of had his like showing out like, hey, I'm a I'm a baller in this league. And then, you know, they go to the finals. So this Phoenix team has been good the last three, four years, adding someone like Durant that could put them over the top. Maybe these guys are so good and so professional that maybe they don't need that jelling time.

There's only one thing we can do to find this out. And that is to watch these playoffs. And I can't wait.

I can't wait to see what's going to happen. But Adam, they're the most dangerous team in the West. In your mind, Phoenix. Are they the favorite for you coming out of the West?

Listen, listen, listen. Denver's been the best team all year, you know, for half the year, most of the year. Jokers been MVP. It looks like Embiid's going to get it now.

I think he's minus a thousand with two games left, which, you know, he's been awesome. I have no issues with that. But is Denver still your pick in the West? I really believe we haven't mentioned them and they're being overlooked. The Golden State Warriors.

Listen, don't say stop. Listen to the Golden State. I think it was a huge trade to get back.

Gary Payton, the second that guy was kind of the glue for their defense last year, him and Draymond. And ever since they've gotten him, you see him making the hustle plays. He's doing the dirty work.

He's an important guy. And then you're missing Andrew Wiggins for all of these games. Now there's reports Andrew Wiggins is back with the team and will be ready by the playoffs. But he's shut down the rest of the regular season, though.

I believe so. But he's at least back with the team and people are saying he will be playing in the playoffs. Right. So to me, you can't discount the defending champions at this point. Yeah, they've had a weird season.

They started out with the controversy with Draymond punching Jordan Poole in the face. That kind of set the tone for the for the whole year of them having a strange season. But if they're healthy and they have that chemistry that they have from previous years, I have a weird feeling that they still might win the West this year.

It's me. Of course, when you said like the most dangerous, I think as long as Steph Curry walks amongst us, then yeah, because you got to look at this Golden State team, they have their I mean, providing Wiggins does play at some point. They have their entire team back from last year's championship team for the most part. I mean, the entire team is back since they made the Gary Payton trade. I believe that's for like Otto Porter Jr.. I think I was like, oh, I forgot he left the only one. OK, well, the majority of the main ingredients outside of all the Porter obviously poorly going to leave on one to Scott Anderson.

But, yeah, those are my comingos taking a league. De Vincenzo has been playing awesome lately. So, yeah, I mean, you can't you can't when you've got a walking cheat code like Steph Curry and Clay Thompson, like you just you can't count them out. I guess just the issues on the road all season for me is kind of been awful. Tough to overlook their nine and 30 on the road.

It's so weird. The only teams with worse road records are the literal three worst teams in the NBA. They're in the women on a sweepstakes, pistons, Spurs, Rockets.

That's it. And then suddenly the Warriors who were calling title contenders are nine and 30 on the road. That's got that's going to rear its ugly head into the playoffs.

I believe it could, but they also could be at this point there. Well, we're old machine. They know what it takes to win.

They know when. OK, I'm like, take this day off a little bit. I'm going to chill out, you know. But you're right, though.

You can't overlook how bad they've been on the road. I have a super hot take. OK, let's hear it.

Like scorching. Well, I mean, you're known for this. So curious if this is the audience. Warriors have four, right? They have four rings.

Yeah. Four rings. If they win this year.

Back to back. Fifth ring or staff, Klay, Draymond, Kerr. More impressive than the Spurs five and Kobe's five. Given the era, the era which we're playing and the teams they beat in the finals and just and just the way they've done it the last two years, a quick a quick answer for me would be no, just because the Lakers went three feet.

No, that's not even the reason. The reason is because they were able to pick up Kevin Durant in his prime, playing with three other Hall of Fame players in the vaulted. But they won again. They won back to back. But I'd say their most impressive championship was last year. But in terms of overall, I'm saying if they do it again this year, totally counted out all year, weird things happen, weird injuries. We still have no idea why Andrew Wiggins wasn't with the team.

The punch in the beginning of the year, the absolutely atrocious road record. I mean, something to think about. It really is. I'm sitting there thinking like about it because you have a guy in Steph Curry who literally changed the game of basketball, right? I mean, many players have. But Steph is one of those guys who right now the game is played the way that Steph Curry changed the game. You've got people taking two steps over mid court and launching, bro. Like, when did we ever see this before? You never saw this. You would have got yanked out and sat on the bench and your ass when it came back for the whole game before that.

So that, you know, I don't know. That's such a scorching hot take, giving all the circumstances that you mentioned. Look, man, if that's your argument and you want to make it and they win, hey, you could be on to something there. Here's a hotter art.

Here's a hotter. I know where you're going to go eventually, and you're going to go. If stuff gets five, is he better than LeBron? I'm just waiting for that. He's going to say magic, actually.

That was said last year, though, too. So I'm going to save Steph because number five. What is the top five all time? Who do you take out of the top argument?

I don't know. I'm just I'm just throwing it out there. I got it.

It depends what your top five is and who your top five is. Now, I can't I can't say that Steph Curry is a better basketball player than Ervin Johnson. I just can't. And I can't say he's better than LeBron. Can't say that.

I just can't. I'm not I'm not going to say he's better LeBron, but top five. Well, no, because those two are in the top five.

OK, then we got three spots. So he's not better than Michael Jeffery. Why is it why is he not better than why is he not better than Magic? Did you watch Magic Johnson play basketball? I'm just asking you a question. I mean, I can't break it down.

First of all, you took a six night. OK, going back to someone who changed the game, Magic did that. Six nine point guard. Right. Three time MVP, five time champion.

With all due respect, I don't know. I mean, I guess I guess you say those stats, but that's like that's kind of and then I'll say, like, if you are in that argument, then you can be like, well, but Magic wasn't like the number one guy on his championship teams. That was Kareem maybe in the beginning. In the beginning, Steph was always the guy in Golden State, except for those two years.

Kevin Durant won two. Yeah. So I mean, look, if look, people are going to make the argument, right? I'm just saying where I stay ready. I'm just I'm just for fast forwarding to mid-June. Warriors go back to back. It's so improbable. We have to listen to Rich just pat himself on the back because didn't he call that in the beginning of the year? I think he picked the Hawks. I think I think he picked the Warriors to go back to back. All I'm saying is and then we turn on first take on Monday morning after the finals. And it's Steph Curry, top five all time.

I'm just telling you, it's going to be the conversation. There's there's an argument for greatest point guard of all time if he wins another one. But I don't think there's necessarily an argument for for top five.

It just depends like what you what your personal five is because of it and who you're kind of around. I guess if he replaces Magic is the number one point guard and you have Magic in your top five then. Yeah, because if we all have Mike and LeBron in some order, right, they're on the list in Korean.

Most people have Korean. You have Kareem. You have Wilt. You've Bill Russell is the was Larry. I mean, I think I don't think Larry Bird's in the top five really anymore, but it's just going to tell you this. Larry Bird's in my top 10 for sure. And tell you that just straight like Larry Bird, by the way, top seven, top eight. I don't think I don't think he dips that. You know, I don't think he's in the bottom. But you know, the thing about these arguments, right, these goat arguments and he says it's just so subjective.

It's just like anything else. It's what you know, we value the three of us. If we were to do three top tens right now, I guarantee it'll be different. They don't like we'd have probably five of the same guys and five different guys.

You know, it just depends on what you value. I guess Dirk in your top top 10. No, no. Come on, Dirk. No, no. Come on. Dirk was dope, but top 10 of all time. No. Okay. Is he in yours?

I think it's worth considering. Dirk was awesome. Dirk was awesome. I just top 10, though. Is it in the top 10 for scoring all time? It could be.

I think he might be 76. I was close. Okay. Saying that if we're just going on the top 10 scores of all time, well, then I'm just saying just based on the top 10 scores, it's a pretty interesting list. But you also said that you didn't think scoring was that big when the scoring record scoring also speaks to your longevity.

Yeah, that's true. So it's LeBron. It's Kareem. It's Carmelo. And it's Carmelo in your top 10. No, probably not titles. One MVP.

The no title thing really takes them off. Okay. Is Kobe in your top 10? Yeah, I think if I had to think hard, I'd probably get the Kobe top 10. If Kobe's your top five, just stuff.

Knock Kobe out. Kobe's not my top five, though. Okay.

I can't answer that question. That's fair. Is Shaq in your top five 10? Because here's the thing about Shaq.

Let's not get it twisted. There has never ever been a more physically dominant human being. Now, when Wilt Chamberlain played, obviously he was physically dominant, right? Except a lot of the guys he was playing.

Let's be honest. We're 68 centers. Well, that's who he was playing against. But he was dominant. But when you're talking Shaquille O'Neal, he's playing against grown men, right? He's playing against 6 10 6 10 270 pound men. Like Richard Jefferson said this, Shaq, you know how many big men Shaq helped get jobs in the NBA? Because every team that played them had to have a few extra bigs on the roster just to put a body out there and foul this man. That's how dominant he was like. He's following Pierre would have played as long as he did. I don't know, man.

Probably not. You think about it. You had to you. You had to have three big men and Shaq's prime to handle him. That's how dominant this man was. He was in a league full of big, strong men. He was this much bigger and stronger than everybody else. So, I mean, you don't have to tell me.

I'm just pointed out. What about Kevin Durant? I don't believe Kevin Durant's in my top 10 came.

I believe the dream probably should be when it comes to just a skill set that you've never seen before because at the time dream was doing his thing. Remember the guy, I think, led the league and steals one year from the center position. He blocks shots. He got steals. He rebounded. His footwork was the greatest of all time. He had the greatest low post game in the history of basketball like a came the dream and like so I haven't actually written down the top 10 for next week.

I'm under Adam. What about Tim Duncan? Well, to me, the greatest greatest four of all time has to be. Yeah, he's top 10. To me, he's the greatest power forward of all time. When you combine his car alone.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. When you combine his his defense and his basketball IQ and he's just a winner. When I think of winners, I think of Tim, 20 years, 20 playoff appearances. Yeah, he totally changed the face of that franchise immediately because the greatest power forwards of all time. To that point, it was an argument between Barkley and Malone, and that was argument for years. And then Duncan came and it was like, Okay, this guy is a little bit better.

Kareem top 10 Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I don't know. Yeah.

Five. Yeah. Yeah.

So your top five is Michael Braun and Kareem. So we're just playing for two spots. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's fun conversation.

It's a fun conversation. Uh, is anyone other than the big three going to come out of the east? I'd say, look, man, the way the season's been going as Kevin Garnett once so famously said, anything's possible, right? But it is hard to kind of look at this and think that anyone outside of Milwaukee, Boston or Philly is gonna make it to the finals is for much as I hate to say this and as much as it hurts my soul. If you're gonna like force me to give you an answer now, I guess I would have to say the way they're playing. It's really hard to envision Milwaukee not making it back. Best record in the league. The team seems healthy. I mean, I know Grayson Allen, who you might scoff at, but he's played a big role for them this year. He just sprained his ankle.

So who knows how long he's out. But with Chris Melton back, you know? Yeah, Chris, Adam, I think it would be hard to say anyone but those three. I mean, the Cleveland Cavs are playing pretty well. Yeah, I just don't know if I see them going to the five index. It's actually kind of interesting show to the next two.

I'm sorry. I believe for the top five teams in the east right now are playing really well. Milwaukee, Boston, Cleveland and and New York have all won seven out of 10 right now. The Knicks have a five game win streak. You know, Philly is five and five in the last 10 games. So the east is going to be, I think, maybe a little bit more competitive than people think. I do think I kind of expect New York to beat the Cavs now in the first round. No, I don't think so.

No, no. Just because out of all the players on either team, I think Donovan Mitchell is the best, the best player. And then you have another guy in Darius Garland.

Yeah, the Knicks have. I love Brunson's game. Jalen Brunson's he's balling. Everyone kind of scoffed at that signing. Maybe he's now underpaid.

Oh, for he looks like he's underpaid. He's 26 years old. Just entering the prime of his career. I think he's averaging like 22 something points a game. Great. Yeah, he's been a great pickup for them.

Julius Randall, really good player. But to me, Cleveland has an overall better team, more talent. You have, like I said, Mitchell Garland and then obviously three and one against the Cavs this year, though. So it's going to be a fun series because right now those teams play each other.

Yeah. In the first round, four and five, obviously Madison Square Garden to me is the best atmosphere in basketball in the playoffs. So whenever the Knicks are in, which has been few and far between the last 20 years, it's always a great time. So that that first round will be awesome. Donovan Mitchell playing against the Knicks.

He grew up in New York. So, yeah, that's going to be a very fun series. If there's any team in the east besides the top three to me, it's probably the Cavs. Weirdly, I don't think it'll happen, but maybe weirdly, the heat, just because the experience they have just going to say I don't think you never know with the heat.

Yeah, you never know. I was just going to say that I think for Boston locking in the two seed, the scariest first round matchup is Miami. We saw the seven game series in the East Finals last year literally came down to Jimmy Butler's. Oh, my gosh, he's pulling up for three. It's going.

It wasn't even close like a day. Scary. They're scared. Jimmy Butler can take over games. Yeah, can take over. We've seen it. We've seen it. Mm hmm. Yeah. With that big face coffee is thrown through Jimmy Butler's veins, bro. Stop him.

That's what I'm saying. And they have like weird guys like Max Drews could have a game where he's just like seven of nine from three. Can't miss. Like Duncan Robinson has been buried all year, but he suddenly could just make five threes in the second quarter. And you're like, what is happening right now? I hear you've got 20 points per game player Tyler to get it to the Celtics in the Bubbles East Finals. Bam out of Bayou like. And they've got Kevin Love to have that experience, you know? Exactly. And they have a great coach exposed.

Gonna be in the hall being the Hall of Fame someday. Yeah, you'd much rather. So right now I'm looking. The Heat are seven and the Nets are six. You want to be where Philly's at right now?

The number three? See, you want to play the Nets over the heat any day? Thanks. Oh, yeah. All right. You agree with that?

Yeah. But those are locked in. Milwaukee, Boston and Philly are locked in locked in right now. So that's one, two, three. That's one, two, three. So I'd say the Cavs are pretty locked into it for I do unless there's really no way that they're going to lose this one. Two, three, four are all in five. It's really just six, seven.

And then let's see. Well, I guess technically Chicago could jump Toronto if with two games left. Yeah, so five through five, six, six through ten is still kind of up in the air with with a couple of games remaining.

All right. So just curious what you guys think about the East. Personally, it's kind of terrified to play the Heat. I do think we take care of them and five probably. You know, me personally, though, just on a personal thing, I just kind of hope that if this is the Sixers.

Yeah. How do you feel about Philly going into the playoffs? I want Boston because, as you know, that Boston's had so much playoff success against us. And I'm like, all right, in order to get to where you need to be, you've got to beat this squad.

So I would love to kind of run into them. I think maybe I'm maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe I shouldn't want to run into Boston. But that's how I feel. I feel like Embiid has reached this this point in his career where it's like, bro, this is it. And, you know, put the team on your back.

You are unguardable. Let's go and we'll see what happens. You guys going to upset somebody in the playing tournament, Adam?

Both, you're just ready for be over. You're so mad. Adam was over like two months over this team. This team is here.

So you're so mad that you even made the play in. I know we're in no man's land. The Chicago Bulls are in no man's land. Like you're like, why couldn't Orlando or why did Indiana tank so bad? Like, why couldn't that be us?

It's ridiculous. This team has gotten the worst luck possible. Lonzo Ball is probably just he's going to be in Chino Hills the rest of his life. For all we know, I feel bad for now. I feel bad for him. He seems like a good guy.

He does seem like a good guy. And he was playing so well. It's just it is unfortunate. But we just can't. I can't say we can't buy a break because we had the greatest player of all time.

Right. You had a great time. You're like you're like Patriots. You are like Patriots fan. No one's feel bad for you. No one feels bad for you.

No one's gonna be like, oh boo. You had to watch Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. But it's been twenty five years since the last Bulls championship.

That's a long time. You're like Cowboys fans. At this point we kind of are. We're living in the past. We're in the 90s like you guys. It was a great era though, guys. I'm telling you, the 90s were the best. I don't care what anybody's doing.

All right. Hip hop was at its strongest. My my Cowboys were the goats of football. It was just it was great. The sitcoms were incredible. Life was good on ABC.

I was getting 20 percent discount at Foot Locker on all the good shoes to Jordan's from like 10 to 13. It was great. I was going to recess. I was eating Twinkies for dessert for lunch. Those were the good days. Those were the good days, boys. Oh man. I saw somebody.

Was it some Twitter account that Albert Brear retweeted? Yeah. Remember remember Pizza Hut, like going to the restaurant and sitting down? Maybe you played a little arcade game. They had the little galaga, the sit down where you put the you put you played some jukebox songs at the table, at the table. And then you got the giant red Coca-Cola with a little like balls, which made everything taste better. By the way, it was Pepsi, not Coca-Cola.

I think you're right about that. Oh, my gosh. Remember the Pizza Hut lunch buffet? This buffet in the late 90s, like ninety nine. That sustained me. Let me tell you what it was like for ninety nine. Yes.

Ninety nine or something. All you can eat. Like the fat boys would say buffet. Kids today, they would have the dessert, apple, cinnamon, apple, cinnamon pizza.

That's right. Where's my camera today? You don't know about the Pizza Hut lunch buffet. It got robbed from you.

It did, man. You don't understand. It was now the breadsticks are always fresh. There's one right around the corner from my house when Sarah's out of town, Cage and I get Pizza Hut. There's no sit down option. You have to it's literally just carry out.

You walk in, you pick it up, you go home. That's a shame. We need to bring back the dine in Pizza Hut experience just for the lunch buffet.

TJ, I'm with you. You know, there's actually by my old crib, I used to live in Mission Hills in the valley. And on Devonshire, there is a Pizza Hut that you can sit in. So, you know, there's that.

I never sat in there because I'd always get it to go. But no way that's still there. That's a good question.

No chance. Why move? I moved in two thousand and fifteen. So I haven't been back since then.

So yeah, they don't even look at the heart. Remember, they used to have the red hot and it looked like a house pizza felt like home. And I don't know how we got on this Pizza Hut, but I'm glad we did not like home. My kids today don't know things.

They don't. I don't even know about blockbuster video. Oh, my God.

Don't even get started. Friday night, getting Pizza Hut and go in the blockbuster and just the anticipation of your walking down the aisle. You see the you see the VCR like case, right? But you don't know if the movie's there, right? You got to go and see all the movies are gone.

Like you just didn't know. You might get the movie you want to watch. You might not get the movie you want to watch. You know, you're going to walk through the house and like, you know, oh, there's a movie I didn't think about. Let me watch this. And here's the thing. I think did we say this yesterday, Adam?

We were talking. We didn't have blockbuster in Maine. We had home vision video.

There was nothing like going to home vision on Friday. What am I going to watch this weekend? Let me grab a few video cassettes. You know what?

I might even rent a video game when I get bored to play the video game over the weekend. And then and then and then if you're a little naughty, there's the curtain. You'd like peek in the behind.

Yeah. Get a quick look at the adult videos before your mom saw you. You didn't have the curtain and you went into the blood busters head. You went into the nudie section behind the curtain. You had to go to like the mom and pop shops for that.

Yeah. Blockbuster. But every everyone's video had the curtain. I went to a few of those two that had the curtain, but everybody's places always smell like popcorn for some reason.

You can't forget about the snack. They literally sold movies in the in the front as you're walking out the snow caps, which is my favorite. Now you were going to goober train, but you guys, you know what you just made me do this afternoon? I'm going to go watch air. I'm going to go talk about the fact that somebody Kara was in here this week and that was so amazing. And we had Affleck and Damon on the big show. And if you guys haven't seen it, check out the rich eyes and show interviews there. We're going to do it. We're going to do an air review.

We should see it once. Yeah. When Sunny the Carl came in, I nerded out so hard. I bombarded him with questions. I got him before the interview. You got him after the rapid fire question. He was so nice and patient. He was so great, man. And I probably was annoying him at the same time.

He's in his eighties. He's seen it. When I first got introduced to him, walked in, I was like, hey, it's a pleasure to meet you again. He said again, I was like, yeah, I met you in 1991 in Pittsburgh at the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic. This guy, I told him where I went to college, where I was from Altoona. He knew like the four NBA players at Altoona has produced Johnny Moore, Doug West, Mike Gisellino, Danny Fortson. He knew about my college's like sports information director and 26 year head coach who passed away a few years ago. But like his just recollection of things is just so incredible. And he and I told him I actually had gotten him to sign a program for me from that roundball classic. And then it was one of the things that got stolen out of a storage unit that I had a few years ago. They jacked some stuff and he said he might have an extra one for me. I got to hit him up.

Let's see if I get that that program. When you think about the last 40 years of basketball, it's because of him. He's had people don't understand the absolute incredible influence this guy's had on the culture of basketball.

How would look different? Oh, completely in terms of sneaker deals with with universities. That wasn't a thing before him. And it's a Georgetown, Michigan and UNLV were the ones that, you know, they were carrying Nike at that time.

The modern AAU system pretty much all started because of sunny camp circuit and the Dapper Dan games like the McDonald's, you know, getting all these channels, getting all the high school kids together. All right. So let's try to see air before our next episode. Also, let's let's let's hammer down this top 10 all time.

Yeah. Come in next Wednesday with your all time with our all time top 10. You guys can watch it, man. And the comments give us your comments. Also, let's see other things I had written down. Top five players under pressure for the playoffs this year.

Most intriguing finals match up. Let's do that as well. All right, everybody.

That's Chris. One thing I want to ask is when we do this, it's always easy to give me give me 10 players who aren't normally listed on the top 10 that, you know, were great, right? Give us some great players that aren't Kareem and Mike and LeBron. Like, let me see your basketball knowledge.

Let me let you guys like that were just could be considered all time. Let's do it. Leave it in the comments.

People appreciate you guys checking us out. Two games left in the NBA. Oh, baby, it's going to be awesome. Adam TJ.

Great job. See you guys next week. He's out later. Later.